This article and others mention that Democrat members of the Senate Judiciary Committee says Russia funded the Trump election campaign via the NRA.
Assuming that this is true, what consequences does this imply for the NRA?
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3I've voted to close this as too broad, because answering it requires extensive speculation upon an already rocky premise.– Drunk CynicCommented May 17, 2018 at 15:53
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1@drunk what's rocky? Don't you trust the Senate Judiciary Committee? And, whether you do or not, is not their verdict generally considered to be fact?– MawgCommented May 17, 2018 at 18:16
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2Try another browser. The link is fine for me, and presumably for others, since no one else has your problem :-)– MawgCommented May 17, 2018 at 18:32
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1Two upvotes? Can you cite something on that? I will grant that articles say "democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee", but that sounds like it is the Senate Judiciary Committee. Can you cite something to show that it was not the Senate Judiciary Committee as you state?– MawgCommented May 18, 2018 at 6:20
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1Why does this question have close votes? While the claim is an investigation, not confirmed, foreign money in US elections is clearly a political topic and the NRA is highly political as well. A straight forward answer on foreign donations to a politician through a US non profits seems straight up within the guidelines of poli-stack exchange questions. It may be a subject that most people don't know the details, but that makes it a good question when most people don't know the answer. I don't see how this is "too broad" at all. It's about a specific charge.– userLTKCommented May 23, 2018 at 1:58
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3 Answers
So first off, the NRA is a non-profit organization that is funded largely through donations from people who agree with them. A quick read from google has found that it is fine for foreign nationals to donate to U.S. Charities, but such donations may not be tax deductible depending on a load of factors on the donor's side (usually). This happens all the time and the advice is that the Non-profit does need to identify an Alien Donation as they should re-frame from sending a thank you note suggesting that the donation is tax deductible because it's such a hot mess.
Per the article read, the NRA maintains that the sum was $2,500 and that they did not use that money for anything related to the 2016 campaign cycle. This suggests that they were aware of the foreign nature of the donation and decided to keep it separate from the donations of U.S. Citizens.
Unless there is proof that these Russians were acting on orders from the Russian Government, were asked for the money from Trump or an agent acting on his orders, and/or the NRA knew about their acting as a middle man, there is nothing criminal.
At best, the NRA will likely get an audit from the IRS and possible FBI Forensics Audit to determine how likely they gave the same money to the Trump Campaign. If there is a mistake there will likely be a fine against the NRA for the mismanaged money. It would still be difficult to prove the donation was willingly put into campaign funds to transfer to Trump and Trump arranged this laundering of funds.
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2The NRA gets half their funding from gun manufacturers, so I wouldn't say "largely people who agree with them", though I suppose people with corporate interests are still people, but I think it's better to specify when money comes from businesses and not individuals.– userLTKCommented May 21, 2018 at 2:28
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3And, sorry to give you a hard time, but the word charity doesn't belong anywhere in this answer. Non profit doesn't imply charity. Charity implies non profit, but it doesn't go both ways.– userLTKCommented May 21, 2018 at 2:40
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3The NRA is not a charity. Period. In the US, sports organizations can get tax exempt status, but they're no more a charity than the NFL. They're also a politically active organization that juggles numerous incorporated entities. I don't believe you've answered the question well. If they did funnel money to the Trump campaign there could be charges.– userLTKCommented May 21, 2018 at 23:33
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1@userLTK: Unless there is proof that they willingly partook in a money laundering scheme, there is little chance that this will hurt Trump. The kind of money we're discussing is peanuts when compared to other violations which were in the millions of dollars and recieved fines, and they showed where the money the Russian did donate went, and it was not to any political campaign donation. If you have evidence to demonstrate this is not the case, cite your source.– hszmvCommented May 22, 2018 at 20:01
I wasn't able to access that linked article.
However, doing a quick Google search finds the NRA reported receiving a grand total of $2,512.85 from "people associated with Russian addresses” or known Russian nationals living in the United States".
Trump is reported to have spent $957.6 million on the campaign. In that context, "funded" seems the wrong word to use for a paltry $2.5K, which the NRA says it didn't spend on election-related activities.
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1There's definitely an article at that link. Something must be wrong on your end. Here's a screenshot: i.sstatic.net/mcORN.jpg– BatmanCommented May 17, 2018 at 18:51
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1$2,500 is the NRA's claim, but the actual number might be much higher: politico.com/story/2018/04/11/nra-russia-money-guns-516804– userLTKCommented May 21, 2018 at 2:34
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1@userLTK: So they're saying it might (not that they have proof, just that it might) be as much as $30 million. So what is that in the context of over $900 million?– jamesqfCommented May 22, 2018 at 4:56
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1@jamesqf I think the point is that by accepting that money, the NRA may have broken the law. Even if it was 1 million out of 900, I don't want a special interest funneling money from Russian special interests to a US election campaign. That's not something anybody should want and the special interests participation is probably illegal. The NRA can give their own money to pacs to elect trump. They can't funnel money from foreign nations. Republicans had puppies when some Chinese businessmen made legal $10,000 donations to Bill Clinton's campaign. This was more money and more hidden.– userLTKCommented May 22, 2018 at 8:12
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1@jamesqf You don't know where the money is from. That's why there's an ongoing investigation. And donating money to political campaigns has different laws that donating to organizations or charities. A person can give a million dollars to planned parenthood (or whatever), but a person is limited to a $10,000 donation to a politician election campaign. The question here is whether the NRA illegally funneled money to the Trump campaign and whether any charges will be made against Russian individuals or organizations that donated that money through improper channels.– userLTKCommented May 23, 2018 at 9:43
The accusation itself is obviously a lunacy. The NRA is a target of so much legal scrutiny that they have sufficient protections in place to make sure that they don't step outside the law. The most basic evidence for it is that they continue to survive despite the ire they face.
If the Democrat members of the committee did indeed sign off on that report, it means the NRA now has a new venue for advertising against those Democrats. They can accuse them of libel. Of course, they can't be sued for libel because, as members of Congress, they have immunity to libel for anything they say as part of their congressional duties. But this immunity is precisely why the NRA can make the accusation without having to prove it in court.
